True Thankfulness

As we conclude the Christmas season and resume our normal life activity we probably reflect upon how blessed we are. We consider the gifts we recieved, the money spent on us, and the time off work we had and we are thankful. Perhaps you reflected on how being able to spend time with family was a blessing.

When we bring up the idea of being thankful we generally mean we are thankful for being blessed physically. I would venture a guess that most of us are thankful for our physical blessings. And God has truly blessed us! This year was overwhelming as I considered that I didn’t need or want anything. Everything we have comes from God and we should be thankful to Him! Israel made the mistake of grumbling and not giving God thanks on many occations (Ex. 17:1-7; Num. 11:1-4, 33-34).

But if all we are thankful for is our physical blessings then need to reconsider our thankfulness. We should give thanks for all things (Eph. 5:19; 1 Thess. 5:16-18) even the bad situations in life because we know that God can turn them into good (Rom. 8:28).

Consider the following verse and how they call us to give thanks for many things:

Psalm 103:12   “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions form us.”

Psalm 106:1     “Praise the Lord! Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; for his loving kindness is everlasting.”

Romans 1:8     “First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all because you faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole world.”

Ephesians 1:15-16       “For this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you and your love for all the saints, do not cease giving thanks for you while making mention of you in my prayers…”

Colossians 1:12-14      “…giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light. For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

These are just a sampling of a few verses that call us to give thanks for God’s forgiveness, God’s goodness, for each other, and, perhaps most important, for the salvation that God offers to us. So the question for us is are we thankful for these things?

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